Chemistry and Biochemistry News

Biochemistry senior Ethan O’Brien (pictured, third from right) along with classmates Drew Powell and Nate Nash and other members of the SU Chapter of the American Chemical Society, organized an event to benefit the St. Baldrick’s Organization which funds research to fight childhood cancer. Ethan says:

“St. Baldrick’s has been apart of my life for a long time. I started shaving my head when I was in elementary school in Brigantine NJ. I shaved my head every year up until my sophomore year of high school where I began to host my own event under the name “Be the Change in Childhood Cancer”. According to the foundation’s website, there are more children that pass away each year in the US to cancer than any othger disease and many diseases combined. Therefore, events like these are designed to raise money and hopefully decrease statistics such as that one.”

Ethan adds that since he has started hosting his own fundraising events, he has raised a total amount of $4,856 for St. Baldrick’s, and if you see him, he is once again sporting a bald head.

Maryam Al Naseri interned at MedStar Physical Therapy, where she worked with licensed physical therapists, clinical assistants, orthopedic surgeons, and administration staff. Her duties consisted of guiding patients through different excersizes, and maintaining the cleanliness and order of the clinic. Maryam was surprised to learn that there are different exercise programs and procedures for different patients who have had the same surgery or injury, and that the care is really individualized. She has improved her ability to multitask, while working with multiple patients simultaneously. She has learned what an orthopedic surgeon does and what post-surgery procedures follow an injury. She has really mastered her human anatomy as well, which “will help tremendously in medical school”. Maryam’s dream is to become a doctor, although she is still unsure of specialty, she is leaning towards sports medicine or orthopedics.

This week, the 2023 Dell Lecture series took place, where student-scholars Jaylen (J.T.) Tyson, School of the Sciences and Zachary (Zach) Rutsch, School of Business and Leadership were honored. Guest speaker Ben Broedel, Chief Executive Officer AthenaES gave an insightful talk on how to turn dead-ends, setbacks and tragedy into opportunities. Ben suceeds his father, the late Dr. Sheldon Broedel who supported many Stevenson interns in the past. That tradition will continue with Ben at the helm. We thank Sam Dell for his continued support of Stevenson University and congratulate this year’s scholars. Click here for highlights from the lecture and scholarship presentation.

Senior Chemistry major, Jenna Sadowski is completing her internship Capstone at Athena Environmental Sciences located in the UMBC technology center near Arbutus, Maryland. Since 1994, Athena has “been providing the research, development and manufacturing organizations with the tools they need to improve the production and recovery of proteins. ” Jenna enjoys that she is doing something new every week, learning a lot of useful skills and getting to know her coworkers. Jenna is enrolled in the BS to MFS program, with the goal of becoming a forensic laboratory scientist. This experience helped confirm her career goals of working in a laboratory, specifically, a forensics lab in the future.

Senior Biochemistry major Janine Cox is completing her internship capstone at Four Oaks Physical Therapy as an aide: making hot/cold packs, helping patients with exercises and cleaning equipment. Her favorite part of the experience has been interacting with new patients and learning new exercises. She notes that some patients spend many months at the clinic and seeing their progress over time has been rewarding. This internship has helped Janine see what the environment is like and reinforced her career goals of being in the healthcare field. “At times it can be overwhelming…” she says, “but I enjoy the patient to person interactions….”